James Gurney

This daily weblog by Dinotopia creator James Gurney is for illustrators, plein-air painters, sketchers, comic artists, animators, art students, and writers. You'll find practical studio tips, insights into the making of the Dinotopia books, and first-hand reports from art schools and museums.

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Imaginative Realism

Dinotopia: The World Beneath

"A ravishing, action-packed adventure." —Smithsonian. Now with 32 extra behind-the-scenes pages. Signed by the author/illustrator

Dinotopia: Journey to Chandara

160 pages, fully illustrated in color. Written and illustrated by James Gurney. Signed by the author

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Writing GurneyJourney takes dozens of hours each month. If you get as much out of this blog as you get from a cup of coffee or a nice meal out, please consider contributing to my citizen journalism in the visual arts.

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or by email:gurneyjourney (at) gmail.comSorry, I can't give personal art advice or portfolio reviews. If you can, it's best to ask art questions in the blog comments.

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All images and text are copyright 2015 James Gurney and/or their respective owners. Dinotopia is a registered trademark of James Gurney. For use of text or images in traditional print media or for any commercial licensing rights, please email me for permission.

However, you can quote images or text without asking permission on your educational or non-commercial blog, website, or Facebook page as long as you give me credit and provide a link back. Students and teachers can also quote images or text for their non-commercial school activity. It's also OK to do an artistic copy of my paintings as a study exercise without asking permission.

I think that widescreen monitors have put an end to it but this is the argument I would always have about not watching a movie in letter-box mode. The composition is destroyed. All the hard work that was put in to each and every shot is ruined by cropping the sides.

I've done this from the impetus of an amazing movie shot that really struck me. In other words, casually watching a movie, but a shot hits me enough that I pause and get my sketchbook.

Three times I can remember it: the ending tunnel silhouette in "The Third Man," falling rubble jarringly breaking up a scene (by splicing the foreground and midground) in of all things "Duck Soup," and noticing a borrowed composition from "La Dolce Vida" (namely, a long shot where multiple people were running and the camera followed them) showing up in "Little Miss Sunshine."